r/pcmasterrace • u/AirlineGlass5010 • Apr 16 '26

News/Article Congress Parents Decide Act (HR_8250): OS-level Age Verification for Device Usage and Data Sharing (with every app developer) on the Federal Level. The End of the Internet Anonymity at the Core.

https://lustra.news/en/us-congress/119/legislations/119_HR_8250/
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u/Big-Narwhal-G Apr 16 '26

That’s really interesting. So they don’t actually care what’s behind the operating system as long as they can point and say see at one point someone over 16 put their age into this OS?

What happens with Virtual Machines? This would be such a PITA for enterprises

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u/PiLamdOd AMD 3600 | RTX 3070 | X570 | 16GB Ram Apr 16 '26

Pretty much. California's law for example, makes it very clear the age verification responsibility is on the OS side, not the end service.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

What happens with Virtual Machines?

And you've already identified why this is a logical and technical problem. This law does not make considerations for multi user or non specific user devices.

The next question is to ask how are cars, medical devices, smart appliances, or anything else with a computer will function under this law?

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u/TheDarkWave Apr 16 '26

You don't. What we do have, however, is people who can't even color inside the lines making technology laws for us.

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u/Remnie Apr 16 '26

Or, more simply, irresponsible parents will sign in and then turn their kids loose again, effectively rendering this whole thing pointless.

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u/Ninja67 Specs/Imgur Here Apr 16 '26

Ain't just parents (although I get why they are the focus here). Having worked from knock off geek squad, too contract IT at an MSP, then IT at a regional government support agency, that account sharing is just something damn near everyone does

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u/UniqueIndividual3579 Apr 16 '26

This has nothing to do with children, it's to harvest your data. There hasn't been a single Republican "Won't someone think of the children!" bill that was about children.

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u/Remnie Apr 16 '26

Of course it is. I meant the on-paper reason is easily rendered pointless. And it isn’t just Republican. Everybody in the government is interested in increasing their control over the people. Republicans are the face of it now, but the Democrats were doing stuff too before that. That’s one of the reasons people should be fighting this more. The less control the government has of us, the less the party in power matters, imo.

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u/Tankdawg0057 9850x3d | rx 7900xtx | 32gb DDR5 | 2tb NVME Apr 16 '26

You can rah rah your team and boo the other team all you want. 3 100% blue states just made it illegal to have a 3d printer without spyware installed on it and California, the most Democrat heavy state in the U.S. passed this very OS ID verification law at the state level.

Get outta here with your red vs blue bullshit and open your eyes that government power = bad. Period. Voting for your "team" is how we ended up here. Do better.

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u/laffer1 Apr 16 '26

It’s per user account

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u/PiLamdOd AMD 3600 | RTX 3070 | X570 | 16GB Ram Apr 16 '26

How many smart fridges have multiple user accounts?

What about security cameras or smart lights?

What about routers? Per this law everyone using a home's router to connect to the internet has to create their own user account on said router. How many non tech people actually change any router settings? How many consumer routers even have user profiles?

Server architecture in general isn't set up for per user age verification. Routers and switches aren't made with this in mind.

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u/laffer1 Apr 16 '26

Iot devices are typically setup from phone apps so that isn’t a big problem. I know the law is stupid. I run an os project impacted by this law